He became a member of Harry Reser's band in 1937, and in the same year also worked with Bunny Berigan and Tommy Dorsey.

[2] In 1938, he joined the orchestra of Artie Shaw, and then worked with Charlie Barnet, Mal Hallett, and Benny Goodman.

[2] He was drafted in 1943 and played from 1943 to 1946 with the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band in Europe.

[1] Privin played frequently in Europe from the 1960s onward;[2] he played in Sweden multiple times in the 1960s, and was a member of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, under the direction of Warren Covington and Pee Wee Erwin, for tours of Europe in the mid-1970s.

He was a member of the New York Jazz Repertory Company when it toured the Soviet Union in 1975.